ExxonMobil Corp. and the nation of Qatar announced last week that they are proceeding with plans to build a $7 billion gas-to-liquids complex and that the project will include a 30,800-barrel-per-day base oil plant. The project is not scheduled to begin operating until 2011, but the announcement afforded the first details about capacityof a large-scale base oil plant that will use gas-to-liquids technology. Industry analysts said the massive ExxonMobil plant and others like it will become a forc...

Bob Olree of General Motors, who chaired the ILSAC/Oil Committee that shepherded the GF-4 passenger car engine oil specification to approval, is signaling that work toward the next upgrade – GF-5 – may soon get under way. The GF-4 specification was approved on Jan. 14 and begins licensing under the American Petroleum Institute on July 31. At its semiannual gathering last month in Salt Lake City, Olree advised ASTM Committee D-2 that he and his auto industry colleagues who comprise IL...

The National Conference on Weights and Measures voted last week to add lubricants to the list of materials covered by its Handbook 130. The handbook, which serves as a prototype for states regulating consumer products, now calls for warning labels on containers of obsolete engine oils. The new rules also say that lubricant marketers must provide documentation of performance claims upon request. Proponents said the measure should eventually further the integrity of automotive lubricants and help ...

Total worldwide grease production reached nearly 1.7 billion pounds (764 million kilograms) in 2003, the highest total ever reported in NLGIs annual survey. Reported production of higher performing greases rose significantly: Lithium complex grease production jumped 12.5 percent, and polyurea grease production was up 5 percent over 2002s worldwide totals. More companies are responding to NLGIs annual survey of grease production, said Joseph A. Lurz Jr., president of J & A Consultants, Spring...